Re: AK in SB
 

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what makes you think this?

I would either min raise villain here (hoping to establish control and letting villain know I have a hand), or I would flat call and re-evaluate when i see the flop. I would prefer to reraise.

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What benefit are you getting from a min-raise? He's very unlikely to fold. It allows him the chance to go all-in, do you fold to an all-in? If he just calls and you miss AK then what do you do?

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am i willing to call an allin for 1/2 of my stack with AK? absolutely. What benefit are you getting? You are establishing control. I also said in my other post that i can see an argument for pushing, min raising or flat calling.

Re: AK in SB
 

My vote is for push preflop. My reasoning below.

1. Calling: The pot is already big, and you will have a very difficult time playing this OOP if your hand misses the flop (which will happen 2 out of 3 times). If you call this, the pot will be 1300, and you will have 3900 in your hand and your opponent will have 1900 chips. You basically have two options if the flop misses your hand: all-in or check (you will probably fold to a bet if you check).

2. Reraising less than all-in: Even worse. Now you've made the pot bigger. You practically obligate yourself to push the flop.

3. Folding: not an option.

4. All-in: The great thing about AK is that you can push it in almost any situation without fear. You have a lot of folding equity, and if you get called, it's almost always a coin flip. The times that you are up against AA or KK are countered by the times you are up against AQ or AJ.

A push increases your stack by 900 chips. A push establishes you as someone who will protect his blinds (make certain you don't show your cards if he folds to your all-in, or you will have wasted that benefit). If he calls, you have a great chance of doubling up.

The button has raised 3Xbb. If you are worried about AA or KK here, then you are weak-tight.

The best way to play AK is to use it as a club, when the situation is favorable. The worst way to play AK is to play it in such a way that you have to hit the flop in order to make it profitable.

EDIT: Just noticed that the OP is in the SB and not the BB. Doesn't change my opinion in any way.

Re: AK in SB
 

push

Re: AK in SB
 

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you prob have the best hand right now


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what makes you think this?

I would either min raise villain here (hoping to establish control and letting villain know I have a hand), or I would flat call and re-evaluate when i see the flop. I would prefer to reraise.

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he prob has the best hand against the wide range of hands that the original raiser could raise with.
raiser may have a PP but there is simply many more unpaird hands than PP's that would fit in the raisers range.seen as AK is the best unpaired hand,hence he prob has the best hand.

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OP states that there is no information available on the other players, that he has no reads.
So based on this alone, how is it you know what cards he has, or even what his range is? He raised, that's all.
This is a common mistake that inexperienced players make in assuming they can assign certain hands to a player without ANY information at all. He raised, let's not make snap judgements about what a player has based on incomplete data. In the long run you will come out a much better player for it.

AK is a very good hand, but a dog to any pair and a major dog to AA or KK. You can argue for a reraise or flat call here, possibly even a push.

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i know there are no other reads,but based on the position of the raise alone,his range becomes wider.
if you just walked in to the table,no information on any one,if you were on the SB,would your calling range for a raise that came from UTG be the same as your range for calling a raise that came from the button?

Re: AK in SB
 

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The button has raised 3Xbb. If you are worried about AA or KK here, then you are weak-tight.

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How do you know that the 3x raise doesn't represent aa or kk. Thats a standard raise that very well could represent those 2, but other than that i agree with everything you have to say.

Re: AK in SB
 

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[but other than that i agree with everything you have to say.

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ever?

Re: AK in SB
 

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How do you know that the 3x raise doesn't represent aa or kk. Thats a standard raise that very well could represent those 2, but other than that i agree with everything you have to say.

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no duh, of course it could be AA-KK, but it could also be like 100 other hands

Re: AK in SB
 

any position can have a monster or crap, but I understand you being more cautious from a UTG raise. That being said I still don't think you can say you are ahead of MP raiser based on his position and preflop raise alone.

Re: AK in SB
 

Cheers for your input guys, especially for your breakdown jcm4ccc. I would push this hand every time, I was trying to remain impartial (didn't do the best job) as I needed to confirm the consensus of opinion as I am using this in my visual perception study. I have another 7 of these hands I need to do this for, so any help you lot could give (when I get round to posting them) would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Jon